Optional Illusion
by Pigeon Eve
Summary: A tale of "What if". A bit more insight on the events. Fleeting moments, imagination and forgiveness only a certain few can give. Outsider and a bit of triviality.
1. Running in Literally

**Title: **Optional Illusion

**Author:** Pigeon Eve

**Rating:** M for later chapters.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the characters, situations or anything associated with "Jericho". Actually, I pretty much don't own anything.

**Author Note** - on the profile.

* * *

_**1. Running in. Literally.**_

It was already past noon and there still was a long road in front of her. Claire sighed and turned off the radio, it was starting to get on her nerves. She tightened her grip on the wheel and yawned. How was she supposed to know that getting out of Denver and going to a supermarket would take so long? Now she probably would not arrive in town until after sunset. Absentmindedly she noted that that really was not the reason she was feeling so vexed.

If the sun is set when she arrives, she still will be able to take some pictures with her night equipment and if not… Tomorrow is a new day, besides it was not like photographing was her job. _'I don't have a job, as the matter of fact,'_ she thought, besides the tavern she was supposed to stay at had no required check in time. Her arrival time at the Jericho was highly unimportant.

That decided she shifted a bit in her seat, not tearing her gaze from the road, and turned the radio on. It was a bit lonely without the annoying noise. The radio did not work. She frowned as she turned her attention to the dashboard as she aggressively pressed the buttons. It had no effect on the radio what so ever. Frowning and turning her attention back to the road, she barely managed to slam on the brakes before she collided with another car that skidded into her lane.

OIOIOI

Jake coughed as he drifted back to consciousness. _'This is not my day,'_ was his first half-clear thought. Only a moment later a nasty pain in his thigh cleared his mind completely. He leaned over but the movement caused a throbbing pain at the back of his head. He must have hit it pretty hard against the headrest. Jake looked more closely at the painful cut on his thigh and pressed his hand against it. "Ow!" he grunted. _'That hurt,'_

He drew in a few calming breaths and let the pain in his head subside before he tried to get out of the car. The second collision had dented his door inward so he had to open it by force. That made the pain at the back of his head return. He slowly stepped out of the car being careful not to put too much weight on his injured leg and closed the door while looking around.

At the other side of the road was the car he had first collided with, he half-hopped and half-limped to it. In the car was a middle-aged couple, he guessed that they had been distracted by the explosion as well. He opened the passenger door to check on the woman, the windshield in front of her was damaged and she had not fastened seatbelt, so it was not hard to draw a conclusion. She had no pulse. He looked over her to the driver – it was obvious that the man if not already dead then soon would be. There was nothing he could do for them. Jake sighed deeply and shut the door.

A little further in the middle of the road stood another car. There were skid marks that indicated that the driver had tried to stop but clearly had reacted too late. Jake limped to the car hoping that maybe this one had made it. The driver was a woman and there was no passenger. She was lying with her face against an airbag. He opened the door and checked if she had a pulse – after a moment he felt it. It was quite steady, she was alive. He let out a relieved breath and carefully pushed her against the seat so that she could breathe more freely. He looked her over and it seemed that she had no visible injuries except the one on her forehead, obviously from hitting the airbag.

"Hey," he called her softly as he slightly shook her shoulder.

OIOIOI

Somebody was poking her, actually, shaking but that didn't matter to her at the moment. She frowned as she slowly came to awareness. She kept her eyes closed as she tried to perceive if she was injured or not and if yes, then where. These thoughts had a calming effect on her. Her head and face was hurting, she concluded that her mother had been right after all – an airbag _was_ like a hard punch in the face. The thought made her gasp and she finally opened her eyes.

"Hey, everything's okay," Jake drawled in a calming manner when he noticed that she was finally coming around.

"My very first car crash," her voice did not quiver as she slowly said the words tasting them out, then she laughed.

"Hey… Listen, are you okay?" he asked. Jake did not rule out the possibility that she might be in shock. "Do you feel something strange?"

She calmly turned her gaze from the road in front of her to the man at her side. "No," she replied, not thinking much about it. Sure, her head was hurting but there was nothing strange about that and her arms were tingling, but that wasn't a particularly unusual feeling either. "You are bleeding," she stated when she had looked him up and down.

"I know," he replied with a smile.

She snorted and moved to do something about the airbag that was not deflating. The movement caused a sharp pain in both of her hands. She cried out and did not dare to move her arms again.

"You said you didn't feel anything strange," he said peevishly and took out his pocket-knife to pierce the airbag that was in her way.

"My arms are tingling, it is not a particularly unusual feeling," Claire replied as she propped her head against headrest. She tried to convince herself that the guy was just trying to help and did not deserve to be glared at even if his tone was a bit irksome.

He shook his head and carefully took her right hand in his. She hissed. "Where does it hurt?" he asked while studying her hand.

"My wrist," she heavily breathed out. Having him pawing at her already hurting hand was not a nice experience. "And, I think, on the left hand, it's my fingers," she thought, it was worth telling him of her suspicion if that would save her other arm from his _examination_.

"Hold your right hand close to yourself," Jake said, helping her press the hand against her stomach. "I think you have sprained your wrist. Do you have some kind of first aid kit?"

"What?"

"First aid …,"

"I heard that the first time," she interrupted. "I mean – can't we just wait till an ambulance arrives?" Her hand was not hurting that bad and she was willing to wait for a qualified doctor rather than doing something on her own or letting him do it. Secretly Claire was hoping for pain killers, she had no wish to move her hand again without them and she was fairly sure that she had none of them in her new first aid kit.

"Didn't you see the explosion?" Jake asked. He was a bit confused now although it was kind of funny how fast her hopeful expression became blank. Jake suspected that she was hoping for pain killers. He knew he wanted some.

"No," she answered. Claire had been busy with her radio and had not seen the mushroom cloud in the horizon. She intently looked at the man prompting him to tell her what he knew.

"It was a mushroom cloud. Somewhere… around Denver, I guess. All communication is off line, there is no ambulance coming," he told her.

Claire laughed bitterly. There was nothing else she could do or say, because there really isn't anything that one can say when one hears that some city not too far away probably got bombed off the face of earth a moment ago. _'Literally earth-shaking.' _"In the trunk, on the right side. It's a big green box – you will know when you see it," she said resigned to her fate. She just knew that it was going to hurt and that probably was just the beginning. _'Someone up there loves me so…,'_

About twenty minutes later her right wrist was braced and she knew the name of the man. She was sitting in the trunk of her car and the guy was sitting on the edge of it while looking over her left hand fingers.

"You're right. You have four dislocated fingers," he finally said. "I have to move them back. While it is possible that we'll get to town and to the medical center soon enough, it'll be more painful if it's done later and there's really no telling when we would be able to get to town," he told her looking down at her face. Jake really couldn't place her, but he was fairly sure he had seen her before, well, at least someone very similar to her. He shook his head convincing himself that he was being silly when no specific memory came into mind.

She huffed. "I really don't know why you are trying to convince me," she said after a moment. "We both know it needs to be done and giving me an opening for whining is not really helping, even if it is kind of sweet,"

"See, you do know," he said with a grin on his face. "It will hurt," now he was serious. Before she could make some kind of sarcastic retort Jake quickly wrenched one of her fingers back in place. From experience he knew that it was better to do it while the person was not expecting it.

Claire had no preconceptions about screaming when in pain. She yelled at the top of her voice when he jerked her finger. "It… Will… Hurt," breathing heavily she mimicked Jake. He let her mock him for a moment before wrenching another finger. She yelled again and hit her thigh with her other hand, needless to say that that hurt as well but served the purpose of diverting her thoughts from her fingers. Before she could say anything else he swiftly wrenched the other two dislocated fingers back into their sockets. She was breathing heavily and irregularly by the time he had bandaged her fingers together so that they were stock-still.

"There, that's all," he mumbled letting her hand go. "Better?"

She looked at her bandaged fingers, they were sore but now she could at least move her hand without whimpering. "Yes," she answered after giving it a moment of thought. "Thank you,"

"You're welcome,"

Then there was a moment of silence. She looked at his face, her mother had been a doctor and Claire was aware that not every person knew how to push back dislocated fingers especially with the amount of skill that Jake possessed. She for one did not know how to do it, but was grateful that he obviously did. Jake did not volunteer information about his knowledge and Claire did not ask. She was not a very curious person. "You should put a bandage on your leg,"

"What?" he asked. Jake had forgotten for a moment about the cut on his thigh. "Oh," he said.

OIOIOI

Everybody was doing something or rushing somewhere in the Sheriff's Office at Jericho's Town Hall and while the activity itself was not unusual, the agitation in the air was. However, Theresa paid no heed to the atmosphere; she came in half-running worried for her youngest daughter.

"Mr. Mayor… Sheriff! A bomb…," she breathed out. Theresa's eldest only now caught up with her.

"Yes Ma'am. So far there's no sign of any radiation. We'll keep checking around the town…," the Mayor misunderstood her worry and in a calm and drawling manner proceeded to explain that there was nothing to worry about. Yet.

"No, no, no. No, sir!" she interrupted him in one breath. "The school bus isn't back from the field trip with my daughter," she explained hastily.

It wasn't uncommon for a school bus to be late, however in the light of recent events it could be a matter of concern. The Mayor knew that and he was aware that Theresa knew it as well. Johnston half-turned to Eric to ask him when the bus was supposed to be back, after all, mothers were known to exaggerate when... "Well do something!" Theresa exclaimed when there was no immediate action taken upon the receipt of her news.

"I got it!" his son claimed the task. Johnston looked at him and nodded in agreement before Eric set off.

"You should be out there looking for Stacy!" Theresa said accusingly when Johnston turned his attention back to her.

"Ma'am," he started, but then decided to do _the familiar approach_. It always worked better on people who were distraught. "Theresa. This is the first we've heard of it, but we will deal with it, alright?" It was a rhetorical question, but he figured that a small token which would indicate that he takes into account her opinion would be helpful in calming her. The last thing he needed now was a hysterical and worried mother. "Just … Please don't worry," he said with a pleasant smile on his face.

Theresa was infuriated. Her child was missing with a bunch of other kids and all the Mayor could tell her was – please, don't worry? Of course she worried! She worried for her children twenty-four seven and now even more than usual. "That's easy for you to say!" she said coldly. She had noticed that he approached her as a fellow citizen now rather than Mayor. In other circumstances that might have had a calming effect on her, however now it did not. She did not want a fellow citizen, she wanted a Mayor who would solve the problem and find her little girl. "You don't have a child out there!" she spat.

Theresa was both – wrong and correct. Johnston's both sons were adults however a child always stays a child to the parent no matter how many years come to pass. Johnston may have disagreed with Jake on many, well, most things and been harsh with his son, but that had never meant that he did not love him. The relationship between father and son was complicated and definitely not the best one around, but it tore at Johnston's heart to think that something might have happened to his son out there.

His conflicting feelings must have shown on his face because Theresa ceased her verbal attack. She looked at him with pity in her eyes. When Johnston's face turned pale upon mentioning children 'out there' she knew that there was only one person her Mayor could think of – Johnston Jacob Green Junior - Jake. Theresa did not step away but she did settle down, finally letting her oldest daughter comfort her and the men do their jobs without hindrance.

OIOIOI

"Please, please, please!" Claire mumbled under her breath while sitting in the passenger seat. "Be a nice, little car and work! Be nice, little car! And I will... I'll buy you a _nice_ air freshener if you will start!" she muttered while Jake tried to start her car. "You know you want it!"

They would never know if it was Claire's bribing or Jake's knowledge of engines, which was quite lacking, that got the car going, but it finally started. Jake laughed and Claire whooped without clapping. Neither of them had fancied the possibility of walking back to Jericho.

They had not gotten too far when Claire, who was looking out of the window, saw two children atop a hill desperately waving with their hands to get noticed. "Stop!"

Jake was first to get out of the car, Claire suspected it was because that unlike her he could open his own door without any problems. Absentmindedly she wondered how many problems her _tingling_ fingers and wrist would cause her in the future.

"Mister! Help! Miss! Please!" a school-aged girl called out as she ran to them. "Miss! Help! Mister! Mister!"

"Mister! Miss! I-I think they're dying!" a boy of similar age blurted out looking between Claire and Jake.

Claire thought that the children were exaggerating and needed to calm down but before she could ask them anything …"Come! Get in the car, we'll drive," Jake said hurriedly.

They were driving as fast as they could as to not risk blowing out a tire on the mud road and that was only because Claire had insisted on that. Jake had glared quite nastily at her when she suggested for him to slow down until she justified it by saying that it would do no good to anyone if they were to break their necks on the road. Personally Claire had enough accidents for one day. It took about fifteen minutes for them to reach the school bus. The little girl would not stop talking and while most of it was prattle Claire managed to perceive some useful information and judging from Jake's expression she knew that she was not the only one.

"It just went crazy and it was running all over the road!" the little girl tearfully exclaimed when they got out of the car and pointed her finger at an animal that was lying by the front of the bus.

"Alright, just don't look," Jake instructed, although there was no real need for it. It just felt to him like the right thing to say.

Jake got to the bus first even with all his limping, which probably was a good thing, because Claire couldn't imagine how long it would take for her to open the doors. This was just another incident that firmed her belief that limping people always got ahead faster. It was some kind of bizarre yet true law of nature.

Jake got on the bus and the first he noticed was the driver. It seemed like today was his 'saving people that got into a car crash' day. As long as they survived he didn't mind. Jake checked on the driver and then leaned on the man a bit to steady himself.

"Is he alive?" a woman lying in the first seat asked.

Claire thought that that was a good question. She was wondering about it herself. Her mother might have been a doctor but Claire had inherited very little of mother's love for medical knowledge so she was once again very happy that Jake took the lead.

"Yeah," Jake answered and turned to lean on the railing in front of teacher's seat. "You okay?"

"Yeah," the teacher replied and paused, however before Claire could declare that then everything was peachy, Heather continued, "I think my leg is broken,"

"Pretty strange sense of what is fine and what is not," Claire murmured.

"You feel your toes?" Jake asked deciding to let Claire's comment slide. _'As if her sense wasn't twisted,'_ he thought referring to the incident earlier in her car when she was supposedly _fine_ and crying out in pain.

"Yeah," the teacher replied a moment later. "Don't worry about me. Worry about them," she added, this time without taking a pause.

'_Great, no pressure whatsoever,'_ Claire thought.

Jake took off his jacket and gave it to the teacher; he thought that she might be cold. Claire thought that this was another of Jake's 'sweet and useless' gestures as she had started to call them. Well, the name for them popped in her mind only now, as she remembered their talk before he nicely wrenched her fingers, but that wasn't the point.

Jake turned his gaze from the teacher to the rest of the bus. It was already quite dark but he could see enough to know that there were quite a lot of children. "Is anybody hurt? Huh?" Jake asked. "Anybody?"

The way he formed his question made Claire think that he was seriously looking for trouble. On the other hand she knew that she was in pain and lightheaded and probably not quite right in her mind at the moment so she supposed that her opinion might be a little bit biased.

"Stacy's sick! She can't breathe!" a kid somewhere at the back of the bus called.

"Oh," Jake grunted and then pretty quickly for an injured man took off to the back of the bus. Now that Jake was not blocking the entrance Claire finally got on the bus. "Hi," she whispered to the teacher and after a moment's hesitation went to the back to see what Jake was doing. _'Be careful what you look for…,'_

"What's wrong? What happened?" Jake questioned the boy even though he was looking at the girl. Claire shooed another girl from the seat before Stacy's and sat down.

"When the bus stopped, she was like this," the boy told and showed that Stacy's neck was on the back of the seat in front. Claire refrained from grimacing and looked at the girl who was struggling to breathe. Stacy's injury looked and sounded painful.

"Its okay let me see it. Let me see it. See. Let me see, Stacy," Jake rushed out trying to get the girl to show him her neck. "It's going to be okay. It's okay," he murmured to get her to calm down. Claire thought that at the moment he was more worked up than the little girl, and she was concerned that soon his anxiety would get Stacy worried as well.

"Do you have an ice pack?" he questioned a moment later, turning to the teacher. "We've got to stop the swelling now!"

Claire counted it to be a positive thing that his voice didn't tremble. "Easy," she drawled while the teacher instructed some boy to get them the First Aid kit.

Stacy was getting more worried by the second. Claire feared that if the girl would become too worried she won't be able to breathe. "Stacy, that's your name right? Stacy, everything's going to be…,"

"Okay," Jake interrupted. Either that or he finished for her, but Claire doubted that he even was aware that she had opened her mouth. "Come on! It's alright. Just keep breathing. Breathe normally, alright? It's okay," he said hurriedly. The boy, Lucas, finally brought the First Aid kit and Jake took out the ice bag and put it on Stacy's neck. "You're fine. Just keep breathing normally. You're okay. Okay,"

"Please…," Stacy breathed. "Hurts…,"

Claire sighed deeply. Hurt children were a soft spot for her, but it seemed that it was a phobia for Jake. His fretting got Stacy agitated as well. Still Claire held her silence, first because unlike her he could use both of his hands and second despite his nervousness he did seem to know what to do, yet she remained and kept a close eye on both of them. She doubted that that was any kind of help at all, but it did make her feel better about all of this.

"Calm down," Jake said but Stacy was already closing her eyes. "Hey, Stacy!" Jake called but the girl did not respond. "No, no, no, no," Jake muttered, leaning over to hear if the girl was still breathing. She wasn't.

He looked at Stacy's face with his own expression blank. It couldn't be. Not again. For a moment instead of Stacy he saw another small girl, pale and dying. Drawing her last breath right in front of him. Because of him. It couldn't end like this. "Think!" he muttered to himself. "Think! Think!"

When Stacy stopped breathing Claire felt something in her throat tighten. _'No!'_ Her hands started to shake and tears sprang into her eyes. It wasn't just Stacy that threw Claire off balance, it were the memories that Stacy triggered. The little unmoving and unbreathing girl reminded Claire of how still her own sister, Layla, had laid - unmoving and cold in her arms, and how hot Layla's blood had been on her hands and robes. Claire turned her gaze to Jake looking for him to do something as she herself couldn't. She didn't see his inner struggle because of her own.

"Alright," Jake knew what to do. "Look, I need everyone's help right now. Who has a pen? Does anyone?" Jake was turning around, looking and hoping for someone to raise their hand. "Does anybody have a pen? Alright, I need a pen!"

"We have pencils," spoke the same boy who had brought First Aid kit.

"No, I need a… I need a tube!" Jake exclaimed. "Something hollow, um, a straw!"

"I have a straw!" a girl called out. Jake recognized her; she was the one whom he and Claire had picked up on the road.

After finding out that the girl's name was Julie and that other kids had straws too, he instructed them to give their straws to her and make them into a circle. He disinfected his pocket knife with an ethanol patch from the First Aid kit and concentrated on performing an emergency tracheotomy on Stacy.

Not a minute later Stacy was able to breathe again. Jake sighed and almost cried in relief when the child opened her eyes. He smiled at her and fell back onto another seat. He breathed deeply letting the events of last few moments to slowly set in. His gaze traveled around and stopped at Claire's face for a moment. She was pale and had a far-away look on her face… Her face. He had seen her before, he was certain. _'It can't be… No.'_

His pondering was interrupted by an awed kid who asked "Where did you learn how to do that?"

Jake took a moment to recollect his thoughts "Uh… Military school,"

Jake's answer only impressed the kid more "Were you a soldier?"

Jake chuckled and said "No, a screw up,"

Claire shook her head in an effort to get rid of her obtrusive memories. She had tried to forget what had happened to her stepsister, she knew that it was wrong but she had no wish to remember. Her gaze became focused again and she looked at Stacy. Jake had saved her. Claire was glad that despite all his nervousness he had been the one in charge, after all, with all her smart attitude it was she who had freaked out in the end. Claire was angry at herself for losing control like that because if Jake hadn't been there, her inability to get a grip on herself could have cost a little girl's life. It wasn't going to happen again. She promised herself that. _'The past belongs to the past. It does no good to me or to the dead when I keep digging it up like that,'_ unfortunately she had been repeating that to herself for almost three years now. Well, practice is a charm. _'At least, that is what they say,'_

"You okay?" Jake asked turning to Claire.

"Yes," Claire answered a moment later. He didn't look particularly convinced. "Really, I am fine and dandy," she asserted now sounding more convincing. Claire wasn't sure how true her words were, but she knew that she would be, after all, time heals all wounds and if the bomb in Denver wasn't the only one… The world was going to be a hectic place and she'll have no time to be anything other than just peachy.

Jake still wasn't convinced but at the moment he simply did not have the time or the patience needed to try and drag information out of her. To be frank, he wasn't sure he even wanted to try, he was afraid of what he might hear. He was afraid of what he might see when he would close his eyes. Jake was tired of nightmares.

He went off the bus to have a look at the tires. He hoped that there were none that were blown out, that would certainly add to their problems. "Where's the damn rescue party?" he muttered while looking it over. Thankfully the tires seemed to be fine.

He got back in the bus and brought Stacy to the front, to the seat just behind the teacher's so that she could keep an eye on her. After all, Stacy knew her teacher – he and Claire were strangers, he figured that a familiar adult face would help.

"How is she?" Heather asked quietly when he lied the child down on the seat.

"I need to get her back," he answered.

Claire who had followed Jake from the back of the bus said, "I can drive."

"No, you can't," Jake replied. His answer was quick and automatic; he had not given it much thought. He wondered what the hell Claire was thinking.

"I can," she persisted. "No, listen!" she put her hand in the air to signal him to hold his silence and let her speak. "I can drive, it won't necessarily be fun but I know I can do it. I will get Stacy to town faster by car than you can by the bus. It has to be me driving the car because the teacher has broken her leg and I have no idea how to drive a bus," Claire was of the opinion that she could figure how to get the bus going if the need be, but at the moment she was trying to make a point.

"By car?" he questioned. "No, let's just all stay together and go by bus, who knows what can happen if we split up," he wasn't going to let her drive off. Jake wasn't sure that she even knew how to get to town. '_This is madness.'_

"We are wasting time. I know the road to the town," well that wasn't entirely untrue – she had had to look at the map to find out where Jericho was, before setting out from Denver so she did know the general direction. "I could get there and get help," she stated and went around him to stand on the steps by the door.

"You could get lost in the dark besides you can't drive, or have you forgotten?" he asked, indicating her bandaged fingers while getting more and more irate. "No, I'm not letting you go it's as simple as that," he stated and went to drag the bus driver to an empty seat. His turned back clearly told her that this conversation was over.

Claire snarled. She supposed that he did have the right to not let her take Stacy and go, but he had no right to forbid her from going by herself. She played for a moment with the thought of going by herself only to make a point, but decided that that would be fairly masochistic and stupid. _'Damn him,'_ she decided not to continue the quarrel as it was obvious he wouldn't take her objections seriously and they had already wasted time. That is – for now. _'Stupid male, …'_

Heather watched the passages between them with a bit of amusement. "How long have you known him?" she asked Claire while Jake was dragging the bus driver to an empty seat. Heather had the impression that they had known each other for some time.

"Him?" Claire asked indicating to Jake and leaning on the handrail in front of teacher's seat. Heather had interrupted a pretty long string of curses directed at Jake in Claire's mind. _'Pity. I was getting innovative,' _"Not too long. Three maybe four hours, I guess,"

"Oh," before Heather could say anything else Julie settled by her side. Heather had to admit that Claire's answer made her feel …_ 'Content, I suppose.'_

"Miss Lisinski?" Julie questioned. It was obvious that the little girl was tired. "Are we going to have school tomorrow?"

"We'll figure it out, honey," Heather replied soothingly. She could make no promises but, personally, she thought that they should be granted a holiday tomorrow. Heather was an enthusiastic teacher but even she had no wish to wake up at 6 AM after this _eventful_ night.

"I vote no," Julie muttered.

"Me too!" Claire chimed in. "That is if I get to vote," she added with a smile.

"We'll figure out that one too," Heather said with a quiet laugh.

"Goody!" Claire exclaimed. Moment later Jake fell into the driver's seat and groaned loudly. Claire looked at him; it seemed that his leg was bleeding again. She had to admit that she felt a bit sorry for cursing him in her mind when he looked so pitiful. After all, it wasn't nice to kick a man when he's down. "Not so goody," she muttered. "You are bleeding," Claire stated.

Jake looked at her with an annoyed expression. He knew he was bleeding and hurting, and while, generally he could appreciate the humor… Frankly at the moment it was getting on his nerves. It wasn't like he could do something about it and he certainly didn't need reminding. "I know," he growled.

Claire raised her hands as to signal 'don't shoot'. "No need to get aggressive," she muttered more to herself than to any others however both Heather and Jake heard her. Julie apparently was busy telling something to Stacy and hadn't heard her. Claire figured that was a good thing, if Stacy's attention was focused on something it was less likely that the girl would panic.

"I meant that maybe you should let me drive the bus. At least while you take care of your leg," she said calmly.

"You said you don't know how to drive a bus," he retorted slowly and suspiciously.

"Oops?" she offered. "Look, I really have no experience in bus driving but I figure that neither do you and as I am not the one bleeding to death…," she had to refrain from adding 'Duh!' at the end of her speech. It was one of those pointless and useless and childish things that just irked to be said or done no matter how old you got.

"She has a point," Heather offered assistance to Claire.

Jake thought for a moment before he nodded in agreement. It seemed that Heather's opinion had had the lead role in convincing _'the male'_ as Claire referred to him in her latest thoughts not really meaning to be offensive though unable to correctly recall his name.


	2. Interlude

**Title: **Optional Illusion

**Author:** Pigeon Eve

**Rating:** M for later chapters.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the characters, situations or anything associated with "Jericho". Actually, I pretty much don't own anything.

* * *

_**2. Interlude.**_

He couldn't stay. He didn't know where to go. Dale had no idea if he even had a place to go to. His home, he had never really felt at peace there, it was only his mother's presence that made the place bearable and now she was gone… _'Now I have no home,'_ he thought as he decided to follow his nose to see where it would lead him.

He had left the Green's house in hurry and had forgotten the tape. He was angry at himself when he realized that he had lost the last connection to his deceased mother because of his own absentmindedness. So angry, that he punched a wall of some town shop that he passed by. His thoughts were hectic but the painful bruise on his hand helped to clear his mind. He then realized that Mrs. Green would return him the tape as soon as he asked for it.

_'Maybe tomorrow,'_ he thought. He couldn't go back there now. He wouldn't be able to stand their pitying glances. None of them knew how this felt; they all were safe, in the Green's living room, clutching their loved ones and worrying over events that happened far away. None of them knew how it felt to hear a mother dying in an explosion because of some sick bastard, because the man or woman who did this surely was sick. Which normal person would drop a freakin' bomb on a city full of people?

Dale knew that he didn't have the best mother and that their life wasn't all sunshine and daisies, but he knew that in-between hard work and her boyfriends - his mother had loved him. In her own way, he was sure she had. _'Now she is gone.' _It felt strange to him to think about it, he hadn't foolishly assumed that she'd live for ever, but he had expected that she would be around for a good many more years. It turned out that his assumption was wrong.

She was the only family he had ever known. She was the only person he had. His peers thought that he was a loser and laughed at him, the younger kids thought that he was weird and avoided him, but older ones… They didn't care about him; after all, he was just a weird, young loser. He couldn't believe that she was gone for good now. He felt abandoned, ditched, left - there were many more synonyms and all perfectly expressed what he felt she had done to him.

Dale couldn't help but be a little angry with his mother. Who the hell had asked her to go to Atlanta? _'Her darling boyfriend, of course,'_ he thought vehemently. If she had been a proper mother to him, she would have come home and would have lived, but… Dale realized that he was being selfish, his mother had deserved a short vacation and it wasn't her fault that her vacation happened to pass into eternity.

He kicked an empty soda can lying on the street. He was confused and frustrated. He wanted to cry but tears wouldn't come. He turned around the corner and found himself facing Gracie's market at the opposite side of the street. He saw a beam of light from the store. _'Mrs. Leigh must still be there,'_ he thought and suddenly something came into his mind. He run across the street and knocked on the glass doors of the shop.

"A little bit back and now… Yes, now forward," Claire muttered under her breath while she steered the bus away from the dead animal and back onto the mud road. "I should go forward, right?" she asked turning her head towards Heather and Jake.

"Yeah," Heather assured quietly.

Jake shook his head and chose not to comment. He turned his attention back to placing a tourniquet above his wound over his blood soaked jeans, because, frankly, he wasn't going to pull his pants off here and as Claire said - he had been too obstinate to do it in her car and too preoccupied to do it right after the collision. Honestly, he just wanted to get to the town as soon as possible to get help and not waste any more damn time on trivial things. His injury wasn't _that_ serious. Instead, Claire had found the right dramatic words to get the teacher on her side and to argue with both of them would definitely be a serious waste of time. Jake sighed heavily. This really was not his day.

Heather sympathetically looked at Jake when he sighed. She knew that he must be in pain. Every time he walked he either winced or let out an inarticulate sound that indicated - he was hurting, which she knew was the exact opposite of what he wanted both - her and Claire to think. Heather was suddenly reminded of a selfless knight from children's tales.

"I'm done," he announced and turned to tap on Claire's shoulder. "Will you now let me drive?" he tried, he really tried to sound polite, but the exasperation in his tone was quite noticeable.

That is - noticeable to all who took notice - Claire didn't. To her defense, it can be said that Claire usually didn't pick up subtle byplay and tones. "No,"

"You're being foolish," he softly stated so the kids wouldn't hear him and he wouldn't startle Claire while she was driving. "I'm not _bleeding to death_, anymore, as you put it," there was a sarcastic tone in his voice and this time Claire caught it. "And you're only going to damage your fingers more than you already have,"

"First, I'm not foolish I am reckless," Claire replied. Her overly calm voice was a sign that he had put her into defensive mode, but what he didn't know he couldn't use. "And… Now to right?" she interrupted herself to ask him to which way to turn when the mud road ended by a highway.

"Yes, and I didn't mean it like that…," he started. Jake really hadn't meant to insult her, he just wanted to get his point across.

"Listen, I know what you meant," Claire interrupted him. To be honest, she didn't know, but she had a few guesses. Most of them implied that he was a macho and had a hero complex. "But after all the trouble I had with getting a hold on the wheel, I think I should make it worthwhile for myself and drive for a while. Don't you think so?" she asked not even turning to look at him, the question was meant to be rhetorical.

"Look. How far it is before we reach town?" Claire asked after pausing for a moment.

"About an hour and a half," Jake answered. He had a feeling about where this was going.

"Good," Claire was going to suggest a compromise. After all, she didn't fancy driving for an hour and half, her fingers did sting even if she was saying something else to Jake and Heather. There was no sense in making a fuss about something that couldn't be helped at the moment. "Let us do this. You are going to lay down, for say, half-hour and after that, I will give you the wheel, because, frankly, at the moment you are dead on your feet and I don't want another accident just because you want some sleep," that came out quite harsh, but at least, she made her point crystal clear. "I have had my fill of them for this week and the next one and probably the one after the next,"

"Fine," Jake was resigned. He recognized a lost battle when he saw one; there was no point in continuing to argue with Claire as he suspected that the more he pressed the less likely she would give in. Besides he wasn't her nanny, if she wanted to torture herself it was entirely within her rights to do so, he had done his part in offering his help.

"I promise I'll wake you up," Heather whispered to Jake behind Claire's back and over Julie's head. She thought that he was hesitating because he was afraid he might lose track of time.

Jake looked up at the teacher when she spoke and then considered her offer for a moment. "After twenty minutes, okay?" He hadn't planned on sleeping, but on the other hand Claire had had a point and a nap while probably wouldn't do him much good, it wouldn't hurt him either.

Jake hardly slept those twenty minutes, but he did keep his eyes closed. It didn't help much but a little bit of rest was better than nothing. While pretending to be asleep, to satisfy both women on the bus, he reflected on the events of the day. At first, his return to the Jericho - somehow he had imagined that it would be a bit more catastrophic. He chuckled. His return might have been fairly normal, but his attempt to leave again had been clearly apocalyptical. He tried to think everything through, but he felt too tired to try and ponder it. He figured that he'd go forward and see what happens; it wasn't like he had any other choice. He hated reflecting over the past, what was done was done and like he had said to his father - he had made amends; it was time to get over it.

"Hey," Heather whispered. "Hey!"

"I'm awake, I'm awake," Jake called back, sitting straight up. It was a good thing that twenty minutes had already passed; he was getting restless trying to rest.

Heather doubted that he got any sleep because if he did - it would have taken much more to wake him than a soft whisper. Heather was sure of that. However, there wasn't anything she could do about it, he wasn't one of her students, and she had no authority over him. In all honesty, the thought sounded ridiculous, so she decided to let the issue rest. After all, why did she care so much whether he had some sleep or not? Of course he was nice and saved them and… Heather decided that the day was too hectic for her to try and analyze it.

Jake turned in his seat and leaned forward and softly poked Claire.

"I know, I know," Claire whispered not turning her head to see who was poking her. She had been waiting for this moment since Heather 'woke' Jake. She was aware of the fact that the half-hour probably had not passed yet but as her fingers and wrist were hurting and her head pounding, she decided that she might as well let him play the hero again. "Time is up, game is over …," she muttered under her breath.

Claire stopped the bus on the side of the road and switched with Jake. She had to pry the fingers of her left hand off of the wheel because she couldn't bend them open and while doing that she had to bite into her tongue to keep from crying out in pain. She suspected that some of the kids were asleep and she really didn't want to wake them.

_'Let the baby boy have his little toy,'_ she thought in amusement before falling into the seat Jake sat in before and starting to giggle quietly. _'I made up a rhyme!'_ she praised herself while swallowing the blood in her mouth; she suspected that she had bitten a bit too hard on her tongue. Claire also had a faint idea that the absence of pain killers was making her thoughts so… _'Weird is not a nice word… I would like to say - innovative?'_

"You okay?" Heather asked Claire who was giggling about nothing at all in the opposite seat. She was a bit concerned for her unexpected fellow-passenger. The woman had seemed fairly normal before now, but Heather had heard that sometimes people had belated reactions to events and maybe this was the case.

"Yes, I am fine," Claire replied and stopped giggling. From the looks she was getting from Heather and some of the kids that were not asleep, she guessed they thought that she wasn't in her right mind. Claire was sure that if that was the case then it was the fault of her annoying headache. She could stand the pain in her fingers; it was the pulsating pain all around her head that slowly drove her crazy_. 'It's like someone very determined has formed my brain into a ball and is using it to play soccer against my skull.'_

"Don't worry," she added, looking straight at Heather. Claire was sure that the teacher had her own pains and worries and that there was no need for Miss Lisinski to worry out of politeness for her too.

Heather hadn't noticed when the man started to drive but she guessed that it was as soon as Claire sat down. She looked out of the window; everything was so dark outside that she really couldn't see much more than her own reflection in the glass. Heather sighed; she hoped that they would arrive to town as soon as possible without any more incidents.

As he couldn't offer any help, Jake refrained from commenting when Claire winced clearly in pain as she pried her fingers off of the wheel. Didn't he say that was going to happen? He sat in the driver's seat and after glancing around to make sure that everyone was in their seats, he started the bus.

OIOIOI

Gail said a quick 'hello' to her youngest son as she ran past him into the Sheriff's office. "Honey," she addressed her husband.

Johnston turned and saw his wife. He sighed; he was busy at the moment and had no time to listen to her about his health. He put on his jacket. Johnston was sure that Gail had come to take him home because he was overworking himself. She always worried too much. "I don't have time right now. Some damn fool …," he spoke as he turned to walk away.

"Johnston!" Gail interrupted him. She understood that he was busy but he had to hear what she had come to tell him.

"What?!" that came out harsher than he meant it. He turned around to face his wife with an apologetic expression on his face. He hadn't meant to yell at her, it was just… This was one hell of a night and his patience was running thin. Everything was falling apart around him – the state, he still couldn't contact the governor, the town - something was up at the gas station, his family… He still didn't know where his oldest _child_ was.

"Listen to me!" Gail insisted although she knew she already had her husband's undivided attention. She wanted his silence, so that she could tell him what she had come to say. "Dale Turner's mother died tonight. In another explosion," she had rehearsed the words in her mind numerous times since leaving the house to come here, but actually saying them was much harder than she had ever imagined.

Johnston looked at his wife's grave face and he thought that his heart stopped beating for a moment. _'Another? Another explosion!' _He slowly breathed in.Her words brought many horrifying images and memories to his mind. The implications of what she said… Johnston froze for the moment, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Gail let her husband absorb the information for a moment before continuing. "Atlanta."

Johnston heavily breathed out; releasing the breath he held in reaction to Gail's news. His mind raced – did the other explosion mean that they were at war? If there already was another confirmed explosion, were there any more? "Oh, my God."

They both stood facing each other and took strength from the presence of one another.

Gail's thoughts drifted to her eldest, she knew that Jake was going to go to San Diego, and if he was taking a train or a plane he would have had to go to Denver first. _'Denver is gone!'_ She had no idea where Jake was. She knew he couldn't have reached Denver before the bombs went off but was he safe? There were endless possibilities of what could have happened to him. At the bottom of her heart Gail knew that she would have to resign herself to the fact that she may never see her eldest again.

Johnston contemplated what he had heard. Another explosion meant that it wasn't just an accident as he had secretly hoped, something really was going on 'out there' and neither he nor anyone else in the town had the faintest idea what it was. It meant that 'out there' was a dangerous place and 'out there' was where his eldest son and a bus filled with children were and on the top of that - the town was in chaos.

Gail put her arm around her husband to hold on to him. He was like a lighthouse to a sailor lost in the sea to her. Johnston put his arm around her shoulders and they went off. Together they were strong, each of them had their fears and troubles but together they could carry off all of them, they had to. They still had a brawl at the gas station to deal with.

OIOIOI

Jake glanced back for a moment to see how everyone was doing. The kids were quiet, some of them were asleep, the teacher turned from looking out of the window to looking at him. If he met her under normal circumstances, he would've smiled at her, but right now he just didn't feel like grinning and flirting. He couldn't see Claire since she was directly behind him, but as no sounds came from her, he guessed she had fallen asleep or was in shock. Well, whatever the reason was he couldn't do anything about it, plus he appreciated the silence even if it was making him drowsy.

Claire had stopped giggling and now she was fighting boredom. She had nothing interesting to do, nothing was happening, she could see nothing out of the window and it seemed that nobody was in a talkative mood. That was a pity, because she happened to be in a listening mood. She gazed over the bus to find that the chatty little girl, that she and Jake had picked up on road, was asleep. Claire sighed; she supposed she really was a bit desperate if she was willing to listen to child's prattle.

They couldn't be too far from town; they had been traveling for about an hour, only another half hour to go. Claire yawned. She shifted so that she sat with her back against the window and pulled her legs close to herself. The ride was boring and long, she saw no reason to make it uncomfortable too. She didn't notice when her eyelids closed and she fell asleep.

Jake saw an empty prison bus on a mud road on the right side of the highway, no one else had noticed it and he decided that it was best not to mention it. There was no need to make the whole situation even more unsettling. He looked back at the road; it was getting harder and harder to stay awake.

"Stay awake," he muttered to himself when his eyes started closing again. He shook his head trying to get rid of the sleepiness. "Stay awake till …," he mumbled and turned his gaze back to the road for a moment. That was when he noticed that the bus was running low on gas. "Does this bus have a gas can?" he immediately asked turning his head slightly to look at the teacher. He hoped that she had not fallen asleep.

Heather opened her mouth to respond but she really had nothing to say. She slowly shook her head, if the bus had a gas can she had no idea where it was and she was fairly sure that there had not been one when they went on their previous field trip…

"The bus …," he paused and heavily breathed out. "It stops," Jake said. The turn of the events shook the sleep off of him, which was the only thing he could feel grateful for at the moment. _'It just keeps getting better and better,'_ he thought. His head was throbbing and he was fairly sure that it was blood and not sweat that was trickling down his left cheek.

"Okay," Heather automatically replied and shifted to turn towards the kids. "Kids!" she called to grab their attention. Some of them reluctantly opened their eyes to look at her. Heather smiled trying to be pleasant; she knew that a teacher was the last thing anyone wanted to in the middle of the night.

"Listen to me. If the bus stops again, we're going to need you to walk back to town and get help … Okay?" she deliberately spoke slowly and clearly, so that the children would understand her. After all sleepy people weren't very alert, especially if they were children.

"I don't know where we are!" Lucas cried out. The boy's voice was desperate and a bit whiny; it was obvious that the child was tired and petulant. It didn't surprise Heather much; after all, it was well past their normal bedtimes.

Jake who was listening to the conversation decided to cut in. "When you get to the stop sign," he took a short breath. "Turn left. Alright? Take a left,"

"Which way's left?" Lucas asked.

Jake sighed and dropped his head for a moment. This was hopeless. How was he supposed to explain which way was left? Not to mention that there were no guarantees that the boy wouldn't forget it a second after it was explained to him.

"Hold up your hands," Heather instructed. She remembered how her mother had taught her which way was which. It was one of the clearest memories of her mother that Heather had. "Stick out your thumbs," a small smile graced Heather's lips. She thought she could hear her mother's voice in her head instructing her like she was instructing the kids in front of her. "The one that makes the 'L'," she said showing it with her own hands. "That's your left," satisfaction in her voice was obvious.

Heather's mother had taught her this when Heather had almost crashed into a wall with a bike while following her mother's instructions and mixing up way was which. After her mother had told her this little trick, Heather never mixed left with right again. Though she did steer into a wall or pillar from time to time.

OIOIOI

"Calm down? My boy is still out there!" a man in the crowd exclaimed.

"The Sheriff is out there looking for your boy AND my boy," Johnston spoke calmly however his patience had run thin. He could understand why all these people were worried but that didn't make it any easier. They seemed to think that he had no problems of his own, that he wasn't as scared as they, and that he wasn't worried for his son. Johnston would have given a lot of things to turn the time back to this morning. If he could have done it all over again he would have said or done something to make his son stay for at least one more day, at least till the evening. That way his family would be all together during this crisis.

It was dark, all of the lanterns had gone out but Jake was sure that this was the right place. Just around the corner he saw the gas station and a large crowd. He pressed the horn. He saw people, he saw firemen, he saw ambulances, and he saw help. Jake breathed in relief and pressed the horn again and again, and again. They had made it.

The commotion that started on the bus when Jake had announced that they were running out of gas had not woken Claire, however now the loud beeping of the horn tore her dream to shreds and she slowly came around.

Jake stopped the bus just by the crowd and then pulled some kind of handle that Claire couldn't identify to open the doors of the bus. "Help them! Help 'em!" Jake cried to the firemen that were already by the door. "Get Stacy!" he added as the first fireman got on the bus.

Claire blinked and tried to get the sleep out of her eyes which was quite hard considering her hurting hands. She wondered how long had she been sleeping and concluded that they must be in Jericho, as it didn't seem that they were going to go any further. Well, this certainly wasn't the way or time Claire had expected to arrive here, on the other hand, she never made any long-term plans, and so - Claire figured that she had no right to be particularly disappointed.

Jake turned around and just happened to meet the gaze of the teacher. For the first time in the whole evening he realized that he didn't even know her name. "What's your name?"

"Heather," she replied looking at his face. Heather hadn't had the chance to really look at him before so she took her time now.

"Jake,"

"It's nice to meet you, Jake," she took a minute to figure out what else to say and nothing better came to her mind. Heather smiled at him.

Jake smiled lightly and nodded. "You too," he said.

Some parents got on the bus to take their kids off, but most waited outside. Claire still wasn't fully awake so she kept her silence. She heard some parents reconciling with their children and a paramedic talking to Stacy while Stacy's mother hovered around. Claire heard the brief exchange of words between Miss Lisinski, whose name apparently was – Heather, and Jake, however she decided not to interrupt. Claire had to admit that her little nap hadn't done much good; she still wasn't in a talkative mood, so she decided not to comment on what she just heard. She tended to act upon the 'If you can't say something good, don't say anything at all' law most of the time. At the moment Claire wasn't sure that she had something good to say. After all, her head still ached, her fingers and wrist were a pain in the butt and her car was someplace in the middle of a nowhere and there had been a nuclear explosion near or IN Denver which indicated that all was just 'peachy' in the world. _'I should've gone to Mexico,'_ she thought suddenly.

When all kids and their parents, except Stacy and her mother, had gotten off the bus, a fireman picked up Stacy and carried her off. Stacy's mother trailed behind them constantly repeating that everything _was_ fine and everything _was going to be_ okay. Claire found it to be a little bit contradictory given that a bomb just took out Denver and that the little girl had a hole in her neck, but she refrained from commenting. Someone helped Heather to stand up and another fireman came by Claire and – "Hello, are you hurt?"

Claire snorted and looked at his face; she liked to keep the eye contact when communicating with people. She was sure that he was just doing his job and being polite at the same time, still it didn't make the question seem less silly or amusing for her. "Nothing serious," she replied a second later. It would be impolite to keep him guessing for much longer.

"Let the doctor to be the judge of that," the man replied. He had dealt with similar types of people before; he was a fireman after all.

Jake had wanted to cut in when Claire replied, but as the fireman didn't buy what she said to him, Jake decided to stay out of it. He was fairly sure he wasn't on the woman's list of favorites as it was.

"Can you stand?" the fireman asked Claire. At the same time Heather was slowly getting off of the bus.

Claire paused a second. She was fairly certain that neither of her legs had fallen asleep and that she was perfectly able to stand and walk. Still she liked to keep people in suspense so she took a pause before nodding.

"Good," the fireman said. "Now let's get you to the doctor so that you can be looked over,"

"Okay," Claire agreed and stood up, making sure to keep her arms close to her. She had nothing against a doctor looking her over; she simply didn't want another examination done in Jake's style. Her fingers were sore as it was. She was swaying a bit, but still could stand fairly well on her own. The fireman took her right elbow to steady her and lead her off the bus.

Claire stumbled a bit on the steps but the fireman strengthened his grip on her arm and kept her upright. Just outside the bus a doctor was waiting for them. "Here, come on, let's lead you to the ambulance and check you," the doctor said, but Claire wasn't really listening to her. She glanced around to see that there were a lot of people; she wondered what they were doing here. They couldn't have known that they were coming so there must have been another reason. "What? …" she didn't finish her question, but kept looking around. She felt overwhelmed.

"It's alright, dear. Now … Sit, here," the doctor and fireman guided her and made her sit on a bed in an ambulance. "Can you tell me your name?" the doctor asked and Claire's attention finally turned to… Her. Claire hadn't noticed that her doctor was a woman.

"Yes… I can," Claire replied and blinked when the doctor flashed a light in her eyes. For God's sakes, her head was hurting without that already. "Why are there are so many people?"

April continued to examine the woman in front of her and absentmindedly replied "It's nothing to worry about. They wanted to receive some news about what was happening, it's okay now," It seemed to April that the woman probably had a Grade 1 concussion. "Now, tell me, what's your name?" she asked again.

"Claire," she replied. She mulled over in her mind what the doctor had said, but something still didn't make sense to her. She hissed in pain when the doctor touched her fingers, although she had to admit that the touch was much more experienced and less painful than Jake's had been.

"Okay, Claire I'm Doctor Green," April said. Her voice was warm and professional, it had a calming and sobering effect on Claire "You have a very mild concussion and your right wrist is …"

"April!"

April looked to see who was calling her; it was her husband – Eric. He was standing a bit away from the ambulance and motioning for her to come. She nodded to him and turned back to Claire.

"Now, you'll be fine but we're going to keep you at the medical center for the night to make sure there's going to be no complications, okay?" April asked her patient although even if Claire said 'no', April would keep using her persuading tactics until her patient would yield or fall asleep. It was what all doctors did.

"Fine," Claire replied and lied down on the stretcher. She really had nothing against spending the night in a hospital, after all, a hospital meant medicine and medicine meant painkillers. Claire had been wishing for them for quite some time now.

"That's good," April smiled at her and got out of the ambulance. She told the driver and the paramedic from the ambulance what they needed to know about the patient to give her some medicine and then went to Eric. "What is it?" her voice wasn't exactly harsh, however she was a bit put off that he had called her away from a patient without an explanation.

Eric was used to his wife's tone. Every time April spoke to him in that tone it made him remember exactly why he loved Mary Bailey more than her. "It's Jake. Mom wants you to check on him," he said and paused. He thought for a second about what to say next. "Don't wait for up for me tonight, there's an empty prison bus out there and we need to check on it," Eric told her, although he meant to do more than just look for an empty prison bus tonight. This had been one hectic day and he was looking forward for the embraces he would receive from Mary.

"Oh, okay," April felt a little bit ashamed for her previous question and tone, but on the other hand, there really was nothing much to apologize for. "It's good that your brother has been found," she offered.

"More like, he found himself," Eric answered with a slight smile. "He's in that ambulance," he said pointing to the one which Jake was in. "I … I have to go,"

"Yeah, me too" she said glancing over where he was pointing. "Just … Be careful, okay?" April asked looking back at him.

"Always," Eric assured her and gave her a light kiss on the forehead before disappearing in the crowd.


	3. Introductions

**Title: **Optional Illusion

**Author:** Pigeon Eve

**Rating:** M for later chapters.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the characters, situations or anything associated with "Jericho". Actually, I pretty much don't own anything.

* * *

_**Introductions.**_

Gail stood by the door of the bus impatiently waiting for everyone to get off. She had dragged Johnston and Eric with her because Gail was sure that she had seen Jake at the wheel of the bus. Gail smiled when she saw other parents reconciling with their children, she could relate to their feelings, it didn't matter that her children were adults. Gail couldn't wait to hug her first-born, moments before she had thought that she would never see him again and now …He was so close. She was impatient to hug him, to know that Jake really was here, that she was not imagining it.

Finally, the last person got off the bus - Gail took no notice of the unfamiliar tall woman that was given into April's caring hands. Gail hurriedly went over to take a look inside the bus. "Jake!" she exclaimed in fright. The last time she had seen her son was in the afternoon and he had looked fine then, now he was anything but. In fact, to her, it looked like he'd been to hell and back.

"Mom," he breathed out. Jake swayed when he tried to stand up; he realized that his leg had fallen asleep. He was glad to see his mother, he was glad to see her familiar and caring face. Though she sounded very worried and he wasn't looking forward to her mothering him. Jake loved his mother to bits; however she always worried too much for him, Eric and Dad.

"Your face!" she exclaimed hurriedly as she got on the bus and helped her son stand. She was terrified to see that he was bleeding and swaying on his feet. Gail hugged her son to support him and to assure herself that he was real and not something she imagined in her great wish to see him alive again. She was much shorter than Jake, but that didn't stop her for Gail was one determined mother.

"I'm okay," he said grabbing the nearest seat to steady himself so that he wouldn't have to lean on his mother. After all, Jake was much taller and heavier than she and he didn't want to smother her.

"Yeah, of course," she replied. Gail gently nudged him towards the door and kept an eye and an arm on him so that he wouldn't fall down the steps - he was swaying terribly. "Eric, help you brother," she said, fearing that Jake might fall and that she wouldn't be able to catch him. Now that she had him back, she wasn't going to let him out of her sight for … well, at least for a couple of hours.

Johnston reached for his son to help him to get out of the bus. He might have been less vocal, but that didn't mean that he was less pleased to see his son alive or less shocked at Jake's worn out appearance. However, there still were many pits and bumps on the road between them, so Johnston was careful not to let his emotions show.

Jake's thigh hurt and the rest of his leg seemed to have more or less fallen asleep so he couldn't help but limp. However, he was a bit surprised to find that the world was swirling in front of his eyes when he stood. His headache had disappeared few minutes ago or so he had thought. Jake was swaying and bumping into the barrier in front of the first seat by the bus steps as he tried to half-hop and half-limp down them. On the last step he stumbled and would have fallen if his brother had not steadied him. With Eric's help Jake finally got off the bus. Once on the ground Jake heavily leaned on his brother … "Dad," he had to tell his father about the prison bus he had seen out there.

A paramedic came by them and put Jake's hand around him, as it didn't seem that Jake was very capable on standing on his own right now. Eric followed paramedic's example, "Put your arm around me," he said.

"Careful!" Gail called when Jake heavily limped at the first footstep. It seemed that he had trouble standing. She followed her sons and the paramedic to the ambulance.

Johnston watched as his son was taken to the ambulance. He wanted to follow but he couldn't. Johnston had the townspeople to deal with. He had wanted to respond the second Jake called for him, but he couldn't… Not without hesitation. He cared for his sons and wife more than for any other thing in the world but he couldn't break down the barrier he and Jake had built over the years of misunderstanding in a matter of seconds. Johnston knew that he'd always be there for his son, but he had to admit that he preferred if neither his son nor his wife knew about it. It was easier for him that way.

Johnston was sure that his son held no warm feelings for him and he didn't want proof of that. He preferred thinking that Jake still might remember the good times they used to have, rather than to hear that his son now only felt bitter towards him. And Gail… He knew that if he let her know he had gotten over his disappointment with Jake a long time ago, she would urge him to talk with his son until he would yield and… He was afraid to talk with Jake. It was as simple as that.

"Easy, easy," paramedic said when he helped Jake to sit on the bed in the ambulance.

"Eric, get April, we'll meet you at the medical center," Gail said to her youngest son before climbing into the ambulance to sit by her eldest.

"Okay," Eric nodded hastily and turned to leave. He was sure that there was a story behind his older brother's horrible appearance - he was almost certain that that was a story in which no other person would find themselves in. Eric had ascertained a long time ago that only his brother got into these kinds of situations. He could never decide whether to be jealous or furious.

"Hey!" Jake called out. He settled a bit more comfortably on the hard bed and continued a moment later when he had a fresh gulp of air in his lungs, "There's an empty prison bus out there,"

"Whereabouts?" Eric asked and frowned. That was probably the last thing they needed right now. It was certainly the last thing _he_ needed right now. Besides that did make the children's and Jake's relatively safe return seem more like a miracle. _'Thank Lord for small favors -,'_

"Cedar Run," Jake answered and moved to lie down. He hissed in pain when he had to move his leg. The sudden pain caused Jake to lose balance on his arms and he almost hit his head against the shelves, but his mother was observant enough and supported him right in time before any of that could happen.

"Alright," Eric said, already thinking about what to do. "Just relax!" he added. "We'll take care of it," Eric said knowing that Jake probably wouldn't let their mother or a doctor tend his wounds until he heard those words. Eric turned and left to look for April and then to… Well, he supposed that there wasn't much anybody could do in the dark, but that didn't mean that he still couldn't do something. After which he'd go to Mary's, of course.

"Oh God… Look at you!" Gail exclaimed looking her son over under the light of the lamp in the ambulance. "You're a mess!" she said indicating his bleeding leg and head. She held Jake's left hand in her own, finding a bit of consolation for her worry in the deed. His arm was warm and that assured her that he was alive and none of his injuries was particularly grave.

"I'm fine," Jake drawled. Having such a loving mother as Gail, was nice - Jake knew and appreciated that, however it did annoy and worry him when she fretted so much. "Stop worrying about me," he said. Jake knew that his mother wouldn't listen to him on this point, she never had, but he felt compelled to try.

"Good luck with that," her retort was fast and definite.

"Mom," he sighed. Jake had known that his mother's answer would be something along these lines. It still irked him though.

Gail looked at her son, challenging him to say something more about the subject. Jake's silence was his answer to her; she smiled a crooked smile and held his hand tighter. "Do you want to tell me what happened?" she asked patting his hand.

"It was a car crash," he said. Jake wasn't going to go into details; however he felt that he could tell his mother that. After all, Gail had been the only person from Jericho he had kept in contact with over the last five years. His mother had a talent of extracting information from people without them realizing it – he, himself, had told her many things, but not all of it. Jake had no wish to worry or frighten his mother - "It was a mess,"

She sighed. "I was afraid I was never going to see you again," she muttered putting a light kiss on his hand. It was an old gesture, she had done it since he had been a child – a little kiss from mommy to take away the pain and make it all better.

Jake closed his eyes for a moment. He was an adult. He had seen and done a lot, things that a regular citizen would find hard to imagine. Still, he appreciated the gesture. It made him feel warm and welcomed and in some way it did make him feel better. Jake chuckled. "You think I'd let Dad have the last word?" he didn't want for his mother to dwell on thoughts of his possible early demise.

"Hey!" Johnston called out. When the gazes of his wife and son turned to him, he faltered a bit before continuing. "You're talking about me!" He paused for a moment. "You did a great thing out there today," Johnston felt that Jake deserved praise for what he did and that was the best he could come up with at the moment. He was worried that if he said anything else it would put Jake on the defensive again and that's the last thing he needed tonight.

"Thanks," Jake replied. He hadn't expected that from his father. Jake had come to conclusion that his father wasn't going to admit that he could do something right in his life at all.

Johnston nodded. He desperately searched for more to say. He wanted to say that, _he_ thought Jake did a great thing tonight. Johnston wanted to say that, _he_ was the one who was proud of Jake. However, he figured that there was someone whose praise would mean more to his son than his own. "Your grandfather would've been proud," Johnston said. He gazed away unwilling to meet his wife's gaze. After a moment of tense silence, he said, "I'm going to see what's taking these guys…," Johnston was glad to have a reason to get away.

Jake gazed after his father until Johnston disappeared from his range of vision. He had thought that maybe his father would say that _he_ was proud with him. On the other hand, Jake had long ago realized that his father would probably never understand him, nor deign him worthy of praise. It hurt. Not as much as it used to, but it still reminded him that Jericho wasn't his home anymore. Not really.

"You know… I go away for a few years and the town goes to hell," Jake said and laughed.

"I'm glad you're home," Gail murmured patting his hand. Now moments later, when she fully understood that she had her child right here and in one piece, she couldn't help but shiver when imagining what could have happened.

"Well, we'll see," he quietly responded. Jake had grown up in Jericho and lived most of his life here; however he wasn't sure that this was his home. Johnston had made it particularly clear that Jake wasn't warmly welcomed back.

OIOIOIOIOI

Claire had known. She simply had known that the entire trip from ambulance to the medical center, the changing of her clothes to a hospital gown and quick washing would take her sleep away for a long time. She had been right.

About an hour after she had arrived to Jericho, she finally got to lay her head down on a pillow. She turned to sleep on her left side, however sleep did not come. She didn't feel even close to sleepy. She cursed under her breath and proceeded to examine the hospital room she was in. There was nothing extraordinary; it was a simple, boring hospital room.

Then her gaze turned to the bed across to hers. The teacher, she had met on the bus was sleeping there. Actually, Heather had been sleeping when Claire had first come into this room. She could only envy the peaceful sleep the teacher had. Claire wished that she was able to sleep like that but thoughts were buzzing in her mind like very diligent and hard-working bees.

Claire hugged her pillow and slowly tried to think back to all that had happened today. She liked to go over the events of the day in the evening before going to sleep, however this night was an exception. It was just that she was so very tired now, that she even conceded that she might get some calluses on her brain from thinking.

Her thoughts strayed and she was on the verge of falling asleep when she suddenly understood. _'Gas station! That's what was wrong!'_ she thought referring to her own previous feeling that something wasn't right with Doctor Green's statement. _'If all these people wanted was information, then why did they assemble at a gas station of all places?' _ Now she supposed that she had been lied to. That didn't bother her much. She was much more upset that her sudden brainstorm had chased away her sleepiness.

Claire spent the night tossing and turning in her hospital bed. She couldn't sleep longer than half-hour at a time. She kept waking up and having some obscure thoughts about dreams she couldn't recall. Sometimes she had to take a moment to figure out where she was, because, for example, once she even dreamt that she was at home and dining with her mother, which was silly, as her mother had died few years ago, but it had seemed so _real_. The peas had been especially horrible.

When she opened her eyes after, for what seemed to her a hundredth, incomprehensible dream, Claire was relieved to find that the sun had already risen in the sky. She didn't feel rested but she couldn't go on like this anymore. She was tired of tossing and turning while unsuccessfully trying to get some sleep. Claire waited for few moments to clear her mind of chaotic thoughts about painting park ceilings yellow so that it would always be sunny, _'After all, parks don't have ceilings, do they?'_ before she considered what she should do next.

After ten minutes Claire knew just what she had to do. _'One step at a time,'_ she thought and proceeded to put her clothes from yesterday back on. Claire didn't fancy marching around the med center in a backless gown. The room didn't have a bathroom so she had to change right where she was. It didn't bother her much, the teacher slept like a baby and Claire supposed that Miss Heather Lisinski wouldn't wake up for at least couple of hours more. _'Good for her,'_ she thought. To be honest, Claire didn't know whether Heather was Miss or Mrs., until she took a quick peek at Heather's left hand to clear the matter.

After she was fully dressed Claire left the room. She wanted to find a nurse who would show her the way to the showers and then tell her when she would be able to leave. The corridors were empty so she didn't meet anyone until she wandered to reception. There Claire was shown the way to the showers by a nurse who looked like she had drowned a couple of kittens just a moment ago.

Claire found the showers in … She called it a basement, however she supposed that people more knowledgeable about architecture or this center probably would call it in some other smart and nicely-sounding word. While taking off her clothes again, she pondered why the showers were in the basement. However a moment later she decided that it really was none of her business, nor did it interest her that much. At least not as long as there was warm and clean water.

It was a bit more than half-hour until she was out, clothed and on her way to Doctor Peterson, to whom the nurse had directed her. Doctor Peterson's office she found comparatively faster than the reception earlier this morning. Claire knocked on the door, hoping that the Doctor was there. She had wasted quite a bit of time already. There was no answer. She tried to open the door, but it was locked. Claire growled quietly and resisted the urge to kick the door. What was she supposed to do now?

Five minutes later, although to Claire it had seemed remarkably longer, a middle-aged man in a doctor's coat came by. "Hello. Are you waiting for somebody?"

She turned her head to look at the man. "Yes! You see, I asked for the doctor on the duty at the reception and they sent me to this Doctor Peterson and, well, he is not here. I have been waiting for quite a time. Could you tell me where should I look for him?"

"I am Doctor Robert Peterson," the man said with a small smile on his chubby face. He fished his office key out of his pocket and opened the door. "Please," he gestured for her to enter.

She smiled in return and entered his office. "Thank you," Claire had to admit that it was pleasant to see a smiling person from time to time even if the Doctor's smile seemed to be a bit strained. She sat in the chair in front of his desk.

Closing the door after himself, Peterson went to sit in his chair. He had been doing rounds for the last hour and now wished to have a bit of rest and a good cup of coffee. This was his second shift and he couldn't wait to get home and get some sleep, before leaving to look for his daughter. When he first heard of the explosion in Denver and then later in Atlanta he had made a plan. He would finish his shift, go home and get some sleep, take a leave from work and go to check on his daughter and son-in-law who lived in Kansas City.

"Let's see…You won't happen to be the patient that was bought in last night from that school bus?" he asked. While doing the rounds he had noticed that one patient was amiss, however the nurse on duty had assured him that the patient had only left for bathroom.

"Yes, I am. I want to know when I can leave and as I am not from around here if I should call my insurance agency or what," Claire said. She was unsure of what to do; she hadn't had any accidents before.

Peterson frowned and shuffled through papers on his desk. While he was doing that, Claire gazed over the office and decided that if it weren't for the mess on the Doctor's desk then this would be a typical perfectly organized physician's office.

"You must be Claire, right?" Peterson asked while looking over the report made by paramedic.

"Yes. Claire Couture," she confirmed. While the Doctor was reviewing the report from paramedic about her condition, Claire thought about how she felt. She felt fairly well - her head was dull, but her headache was gone. Her wrist was sensitive; however she didn't feel the sharp pain she felt yesterday when she moved it. She even supposed that she could have imagined half of the pain she felt yesterday

Her fingers were sore, but all together she felt fine. Her thoughts were clear and while she was a little tired, she didn't feel sleepy.

"Can you tell me from where you are from and what happened yesterday?" he asked getting up from his chair and walking over to her. He took one of her hands in his and gently probed it.

"Do you mean where I was born or where I was coming from yesterday?" she asked. Claire blinked when the Doctor flashed a light into her eyes and she didn't wait for his answer before continuing. "Yesterday I set out from Denver for Jericho. I have a room reserved at the tavern. I'm… Oi!" she exclaimed when Peterson raised her right hand in air and bended her wrist.

"Yes?" he asked absent-mindedly while continuing his examination. So far so good, it didn't seem that the woman had any serious injuries.

"On the highway I got into a car accident. My first one, by the way, besides myself a man from another car survived…," she said and paused. For the love of potato pancakes she suddenly couldn't remember the man's name. _'It was something fairly common, but what?'_ Claire was never good at remembering names.

"Pull up your sweater a bit, I'll listen to your heartbeat," the doctor instructed her.

Claire did as told and continued talking. She abandoned her previous thread of story and continued on a completely new point. "As my car was still working we decided to drive to town. Forward, forward, forward. Some time later I noticed a couple of children standing on the top of a hill. We stopped and they told us about the school bus," she paused and pulled her sweater down.

Robert Peterson went around his desk, sat on his chair and started to write down his conclusions about the patient on a blank piece of paper. At the same time he nodded for her to continue her tale. As far as he knew now all injuries she had were minor.

"We got to the school bus and that's about it. John, no… James… Uh. Well, something like that," she tried guessing the name, and while all of them sounded _something like the right one_, she knew that none of them were right. She gave up on it. "Well, _he_ saved the little girl who had a swollen neck and then drove the bus back to town. That's how I got on the bus and virtually the end of the story,"

"Okay," Peterson said, finally turning his attention fully to her. He hadn't paid much attention to what she said. He had needed Claire to talk, to see if she was coherent and in control of her memory. "You were lucky you got off so easy. You have first grade sprain on your wrist and first grade concussion. Your fingers were dislocated, however there's nothing much I can do for them. It's good that they were moved back soon after the dislocating,"

"And?" Claire had a rough time understanding what the Doctor was saying. She would have preferred it if the information was served in simple words on silver platter.

"Your wrist had swelled a bit before, however now the swelling is gone. As long as you avoid raising your hand above the heart level and putting much strain on the wrist for the next week or two, it should be fine. Wrist sprains heal the fastest. As for the concussion, you got the mildest kind. Be careful and don't run into some pillar or other car or otherwise receive a blow on your head for a month or two and you should have no complications," Peterson said to her. "When you'll give me the information about your insurance policy and contact data you're free to go," he added with a smile.

Fifteen minutes later she was standing outside of the medical center with a small parcel of painkillers in her pocket and completely free to do what she wished. In the pharmacy she had taken a look at the clock and was quite surprised to learn that it was only five minutes to seven o'clock in the morning. She was a late sleeper and for her this was one ungodly hour to be awake at. _'On the bright side, I love mornings. I just don't like to wake in them,'_

OIOIOIOIOI

Johnston was looking at the map of the closest area around Jericho in the Sheriff's Office while waiting for the policemen. His wife had opted to stay at hospital for the night at the bedside of their son, so he had the chance of slipping out of home earlier and getting an early start at work. It wasn't like he could sleep anyway. He heard the door opening and closing then heavy footsteps. _'Finally,'_ he thought.

"Mayor," Jimmy and Bill greeted him in unison. As Jimmy yawned and more men came in and sat down at their desks. None of them looked particularly awake, however every one of them were determined to do their jobs.

"Good Morning," Johnston replied. Despite the good weather this morning didn't seem to be particularly good. "Jimmy, Bill. You're the official Deputies now as Sheriff and Riley have gone missing," he said. His voice was strict and formal, the Sheriff had been a friend of his, and while it wasn't good to bury friends before time there was no moment for delaying or grieving.

Jimmy and Bill nodded their acceptance. Johnston breathed deeply and started to outline the plan for the day. They had to send out a party to check on that prison bus and to search for the Sheriff. They had to determine what in the town was working, and if it wasn't how to get it working again.

Claire walked in the Sheriff's Office moments after the first party had set out. She walked straight to the reception desk and spoke to the old man that was standing there and looking at some kind of charts and mumbling to himself. "Good morning,"

Johnston turned to the source of the voice. With everyone running up and down to gather things and get going, he hadn't noticed the burgundy haired woman entering. "Good morning. Is there anything I can help you with?" he asked. He knew that the woman wasn't from town, he knew almost every person in Jericho; however he also knew that he had seen her before. _'On the bus, I think,'_

"I hope you can," her voice was aloof. "Yesterday I was driving to this town in order to spend a few days to rest," she wasn't exactly lying. She was going to rest. After all, she had been resting for the last half of the year. "However because of a series of unfortunate events I was forced to abandon my car in the wilds and come here by school bus," she paused. Claire breathed out and continued - her voice a bit warmer now, "I was wondering if you could advise me how I can get back to it."

Johnston thought for a moment. "There's no taxi in this town, however the deputies have business in that area. If they haven't left already they could give you a lift to your car, Miss" he said. He didn't have to ask for details of where she had left her car. Yesterday they had already determined that there could be only two roads on which the school bus could have been. When Jake told that he had seen the empty prison bus by Cedar Run, it was quite obvious where the woman's car would be located.

For a moment he considered asking her for more detailed information, but then decided that he had no real grounds to do that. Besides he had things more important to do than to wonder how one foreign dark-eyed woman got on a school bus with his wayward son.

Claire opened her mouth to ask where she should look for these deputies when two men came out from some office further down the corridor. The men were enthusiastically chatting away and Claire could only envy their energy this early on the morning.

"Jimmy, Bill, its good you're still here. The lady needs a lift to her car. I suppose it should be somewhere around Cedar Run, probably on the farm track that leads through former Stone's land," Johnston spoke. "Can you do that?"

One of the men, Jimmy – Claire guessed, answered after giving it a moments thought, "Sure, Mayor. We'll need to take other route than planned, but we can do that. No problem,"

"Good," Johnston said and nodded.

Claire smiled. "Thank you," she said to all of them. Her voice was warm and sincere. This had worked out quite nicely; she hadn't expected to be so lucky. Her luck seemed to be on vacation for quite some time already.

"You're welcome," Bill answered with a smile. "Now, we're leaving right now. Do you have to take something or…," he trailed off not knowing what else to add.

"No, I'm ready to go," she said without thinking much about it. Foolishly, she had left everything in her car last night except for a few dollars that she found in the back pocket of her jeans. She always kept some money in her car or pockets or any other place she could think to put it in for – 'just in case'. The money had been spent on the painkillers minutes previously.

"Okay then," Jimmy said and went past her to the exit. "Follow me,"

Five minutes later she was comfortably seated in the relatively uncomfortable backseat of the police car. The radio hadn't worked since yesterday – Claire could pinpoint from exactly which moment as that had been the main reason she hadn't noticed Jake skidding into her lane until the last moment. However she couldn't complain about boredom because Jimmy and Bill turned out to be quite conversational guys. They both seemed simple and provincial to her, but they were nice, they liked to talk and Claire was willing to listen.

In the hour and half long ride she learned a lot about them, their families and the town itself. Jimmy and Bill joked pretty much the whole time and she found herself laughing again and again. She loved to laugh, so she didn't even try to pretend that they weren't funny. After yesterday which had turned out _'not to be my day' _she found this to be a nice change. While she didn't engage much in their banter, mostly because she liked to listen to the lighthearted chatter, she did talk. She told them her name, her childhood adventures, the most trivial things like favorite movies or music or preference in food.

It was a twenty minute bumpy ride on mud road until they reached her sedan that stood abandoned by the roadside. She felt a bit disappointed that the ride had already ended; it had been one mood uplifting journey.

"Thanks for the ride," she said stepping out of the police car. A fresh and warm gust of wind blew into her face. She closed her eyes for a second to enjoy it.

"You're welcome Claire," Bill said. He was the one who was sitting at the wheel.

"Listen, you'll come straight back to town now, won't you?" Jimmy asked. He frowned; suddenly it didn't seem like a good idea to leave her here. After all, there was that empty prison bus at Cedar Run and that was only a half-hour drive away from here.

"I think I will. There's really no other place I can go to and …," she chuckled for no reason but the fun of it. "And I do have a reservation at the tavern,"

"That's good," Bill said. He took a pause for a moment, gazing at the fields. "Who knows what's really going on out there," he quietly said. It frightened him to think about what had happened in Denver and Atlanta. _'Gone,'_ he thought. _'Two very large cities – simply gone from the face of the earth,'_

Claire shrugged. She really didn't have anything to say other than some cheap phrase so she held her silence. Claire took deep breath of the fresh, warm morning air that seemed to pour strength into her.

"We've got to. We have a job to do, but you know how to get back to town, don't you?" Bill asked breaking out of his reverie.

"Just go the same way we came here, okay?" Jimmy said.

"Okay," She answered, not really listening to what they were saying. They were nice and all, but now it was time for them to go. Claire hated such extended bye-byes. She wanted to take a look at her car in the light of the morning and to have a smoke. Oh, how she wanted to smoke. And to be alone, at least for a moment.

"Good. Don't stay here too long and be careful," Jimmy advised. This didn't feel like a good day to him on the other hand he had been like a cat on hot bricks since yesterday.

"It was nice to meet you both," Claire said when Bill opened mouth to undoubtedly say something more along the same lines. For heathen gods' sakes, she already got the point! _'Perhaps I look like I'm retarded…,'_

"Pleasure," Bill replied. "Take care. Bye!" he said and finally started the engine.

"Bye!" Jimmy called and then they drove away leaving a cloud of dust behind themselves.

Claire smiled. She actually liked to be alone and this was one beautiful morning if a little too warm for her tastes.


	4. Claustrophobic

**Title: **Optional Illusion

**Author:** Pigeon Eve

**Rating:** M for later chapters.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the characters, situations or anything associated with "Jericho". Actually, I pretty much don't own anything.

* * *

_**Claustrophobic.**_

He was asleep almost at the very moment his head hit the pillow. His sleep was peaceful for the whole night and only at the breaking of the dawn his dreams took a darker note. He tossed in the hospital bed with his eyes closed, at the mercy of his sinister memories.

Tangled up in his sheets, he jumped in a sitting position. He looked around the hospital room while trying to calm his breathing and wake up fully. On a small couch by the wall opposite to the door was his mother. Gail was soundly asleep. On the arm of the couch was a parcel with a fresh set of clothes for him.

Jake drew his hand through his hair and smiled. It was sweet from her to stay. _'And absolutely unnecessary, she should have stayed at home and had a decent sleep,'_ he thought and moved to get out of the bed. He didn't know what really happened yesterday aside from the obvious, he didn't know what would happen, but he did know he had to get moving. There surely were a lot of things that needed to get done and he couldn't just stand by.

&

Gail slowly opened her eyes coming to awareness, despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements she felt rested. She hadn't noticed when she fell asleep. Gail remembered going home to take some of Eric's clothes for Jake, she remembered coming back and she remembered watching her child sleeping. She smiled lightly; it felt good to have the whole family in one town again.

It was only moments later when she realized that she was alone here. Jake and the clothes were gone, it wasn't hard to put two and two together, kid had always hated hospitals. _'Now, the question is – where the hell is he?'_

The meantime Jake was hopping up a fireman stairs on the building beside the medical center. Few minutes ago he had been drinking bad coffee with April in her office; one could say that they were catching up, if catching up counts as April talking and Jake listening. He had never taken a chance to get to know his sister-in-law particularly well, but this morning they had bumped into each other and he had had no reason to deny her offer for a coffee.

Beside from being a great source of information, Jake found that his sister-in-law was quite ingenious as well as firm. He almost felt sorry for not taking time to get to know her earlier; he guessed she could make a great friend. Jake thought he could see a bit of his mother in April, they were of one kind. He smiled; he could imagine that April ruled over Eric just the same way his mother did over his Dad.

He finally was on the roof of the building. He took a small step forward and a look at the horizon. He gripped the railing, all smile vanishing from his face. "Oh my God," he drawled. For a moment he just stared at the oncoming storm, not fully grasping the fact. The next he was back on the stairs and on his way down, there was trouble coming and one hell of a lot of work to do.

Gail went to get Johnston on the radio, which she knew could be found at the reception. She figured that Jake could have gone to the Town Hall and even if her son wasn't there she had to remind her husband not to overdo it. She was fully aware that Johnston most likely had been working since the dawn. She took a shuddering breath as she called for the answer at the other end of the radio, she couldn't help but feel a bit hurt and worried about Jake's disappearance.

&

Claire waited until the dust settled and went to her car. She opened the door and slid into the front seat with a habitual manner. She froze. Only now she realized that she didn't have the key of the car, that the doors had been unlocked and that the key in question was still in the ignition.

Last night had been a thriller from a Hollywood movie and she hadn't even really thought about anything then. She had just gone with the flow. Now she could only curse. She hastily took a pack of cigarettes and a matchbox from the glove box. She got out of the car, lighted the cigarette and took a long smoke.

She stood still for a moment, just smoking and then she kicked the dirt and screamed. Claire was angry for ever entrusting the key to Jake. In that damned car were all her belongings and while she wasn't prone to getting attached to things it wasn't like she could just reach over the Atlantic ocean and pick something from home, was it? She dropped the cigarette and took a new one. Her breathing was heavy and irregular, she marched few steps up and down. She didn't say a word, but she did think of a lot of them.

She was angry at the whole situation. It just wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to have simple weekend in a simple town and lots of simple rest. She wasn't supposed to get into a car accident. A city wasn't supposed to blow up. A city she had just gotten out of just wasn't _supposed_ to blow up. Nothing of it should have happened; she didn't want to deal with it. She… Claire dropped another fag-end into the dirt and then dropped herself into the car seat.

Cities weren't supposed to blow up, but they apparently did. She wasn't supposed to entrust all she had at the moment to strange guys, but she apparently had. Everything had come and gone. She was still alive, she was well, she even had all of her stuff and Claire figured she could deal to whatever was yet to come.

She took a deep breath and then another cigarette. She never really considered herself to be addicted to them, however if anybody asked she told she was. It was kind of amusing, besides it was half-truth, when she started - she couldn't stop. It was pretty simple. _'Life is simple,'_ she thought a moment later.

She was calm. She had needed to vent out, because sometimes processing everything calmly just wasn't enough, sometimes she just had to let it go for a few insane moments. Claire definitely felt better now. She could say she even felt _cheerful_.

It was only few minutes over nine o'clock in the morning and she smoked a few more cigarettes while she took a critical look at the front of her car and tried to enjoy the morning while sitting on the bonnet of her sedan. It didn't really work out the way she expected it – she kept slipping off, and after sixth time she decided that in those music videos people must glue themselves to the car and that the morning was becoming too warm for her wishes for her to continue this act of masochism. She simply sat in the back seat.

It was about half-hour more before she finally was ready to set back to town. In that half-hour she had almost emptied the pack of cigarettes, changed her clothing to something flimsier and started chewing out all her refreshing chewing-gums. Smoking was relaxing, but that in no way meant that she enjoyed having stinking breath.

It was quarter to ten when she was really ready to hit the road.

&

After Jake left April continued to slowly sip the rest of her coffee. She had no idea where her brother-in-law had taken off, he had just said that he had to check on something and then left. She enjoyed her coffee and spent the last few minutes before her shift started musing over the mystery that was her husbands' brother.

She put the empty cup on the table and went to visit Doctor Peterson; she needed for him to pass down the information of this night, so she would know what to expect today. April went straight to her colleague's office, it was a routine for the doctors of Jericho – exchange information at the end of the shift with the next one on it and drink a cup of coffee. _'Second one today, I'm going to be hyper,'_ she thought.

"Come in, come in," Peterson called when he heard knocking. He was already waiting for her – two cups of steaming coffee on his table.

"Good morning, Robert," she greeted with a slight customary smile on her face. "Was there any additional trouble tonight?"

"Morning, April. Please, sit," he paused. "No, everything was fine,"

"Thanks," she sat and took the cup of coffee, she knew she shouldn't drink so much of it, but it smelled so nice. _'Mhmmm,'_ she thought and took a sip. It was impossible to resist.

Robert shifted through the papers on his desk until he found what he was looking for – a squared note-book. "Now, let's see," he mumbled. "Annie Wood's recovery is going fine, the Martinson babe is feeling fine, the mother is getting better as well, now, what else… Everywhere else nothing much has changed. Ah, the schoolteacher that came in yesterday from that bus needs a fix on her leg – the bone's not broken just damaged. And that other woman from the bus, what was her name… Here it is, Claire Couture took her leave early this morning, and she was fairly fine as well. I took the file down to the filing cabinet, so if you have any additional interest it's there," he said putting the note-book down and taking a sip of coffee.

"Okay, I'll see what can I do for the teacher and check on everyone else after," she said after giving it a moment's thought.

Robert Peterson slowly sipped his coffee and tried to think of a way to politely tell April that he wasn't coming back to job tomorrow evening. That he was sorry for leaving the responsibility for the whole center on her shoulders but that he really had no choice. He had to go to check on his daughter. "April…,"

April tensed a bit; she had a feeling that whatever Robert was going to say wouldn't settle well with her. When she had come in she had thought that the reason for his pale appearance was his 24 hour shift, but now she started to think that there could be another reason. She tried to think of whatever it could be that had unsettled the man.

"I'm really sorry, but I'm not coming back tomorrow. I… I'm going to Kansas City," he said. He didn't turn his gaze away; he continued to stare into her eyes – silently pleading to understand.

"But Robert..," she started but couldn't continue. She could understand him, April knew of his daughter who lived in Kansas City. She had gone in the same school with Nancy. She knew that in his place she would probably do something similar, she couldn't begrudge him.

April put the cup of her unfinished coffee at his table and stood. She knew that it would make things a lot more difficult in the center if he was to leave. She knew that he might not return, yet she couldn't bear ill will towards her colleague. Nor she had any right to forbid him to go. At the door she turned to face him. "Be careful," she said with a pained expression upon her face. She didn't like this one bit.

"I hope you find Nancy and Lauren well and unharmed. I'll…," she paused. "I'll pray for your safe return," she said. April wasn't the most passionate believer, but she did talk to God once in a while. Now it seemed to be the right time to do so.

Robert Peterson smiled albeit a sad smile, "Thank you."

April couldn't force a smile in return, she gave him a small nod and left. She didn't have time to ponder what consequences yesterday's tragedy was yet to bring.

&

"I feel like a badass," Heather said. She thought that her offhanded comment would somehow lighten the mood. Judging by April's facial expression it had not.

Jake barged in before April could spring a list of advices on Heather. "April! Does this clinic have a fallout shelter?"

April was silent for a moment. "Yes," she said inconclusively. "What's going on?" somehow she doubted that she really wanted to know the answer to this question. She wasn't particularly close to her brother-in-law, hell, she barely knew him, and however something about his expression tipped her off.

"It's bad," he retorted. He didn't want to go into details just now. "Come on!"

April nodded and immediately followed him out of the room. "What's going on?" she repeated her question when they were hurrying down the hall.

"There's storm coming," he said. They were standing on the last step of the stairs in the basement. "Where to?"

"Here," she indicated and took on leading the way. "Storm? I don't understand,"

"Radiation moves through the air. The storm's coming from Denver," he said. "It'll rain straight down on us," their gazes met as they reached the door.

"Oh, my God," April breathed and fumbled for keys in her pocket. There were a lot of keys in the bundle, but eventually she found the right one.

"When was the last time someone was in here?" Jake questioned as he kicked and pulled and pushed to get the door to open. "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered when the door opened and he was greeted by stench of the room, which had not seen ventilation for a couple of years.

"I can't put people in here," April said. She could hardly think past that. There was a lot of work to do in this room to get it sterile enough for the patients and she knew that there couldn't be enough time. _'Storm from Denver… It's about two hours away, we don't have enough time. We don't have time,'_

"There's no air. There's no air in here," Jake said smelling the air, if the stench could be even remotely associated to air. "I hope the fan works. We have a lot of work to do," he said voicing his own and April's thoughts.

April looked at Jake. "I need to finish my rounds and then I can come here and help with… Something,"

Jake shook his head. "Go finish your rounds and then stay there around. Keep people calm. I'm going to get someone who knows something about fans and engines and then see what I can do about making this place habitable,"

April looked unsure for a moment. She wanted to supervise cleaning of the shelter as she didn't want her patients to catch some kind of disease… "Okay," she agreed a moment later. She had enough work to do upstairs. "I'll make everything ready for moving,"

"I'll let you check everything before bringing people down," Jake said. Small smile graced his face.

"I count on it," she replied then took a quick look at her wrist watch. "I really have to go…," she started unsure whether or not she had to stay a moment longer.

"I have it under control, go," Jake assured his sister-in-law. He turned back to filthy shelter as April left. He sighed. _'A lot of work doesn't even begin to cover it,'_ He took a few steps around the shelter to see if there was something that he missed in the first glance.

A plan slowly formed in his mind and he spun around to go get some help. He hoped April had some nurses to spare, he hadn't thought to ask previously. He needed someone to sweep this shelter clean, he had to work on the fan. "Supplies. Don't forget about supplies," he muttered to himself.

&

Radio didn't work, but she had a collection of CD's for these kinds of occasions. Well, actually for occasions when there wasn't radio signal not when it was wiped away by explosion, but all the same – she did have some music. And that helped her to keep her relatively cheerful mood.

She shifted in her chair in the rhythm of the music and tapped the wheel. She even sang along. Claire didn't pay much attention to the road, but to her credit, there wasn't anyone on the road except her, probably for many miles around. Good for them, Claire wasn't particularly talented at singing.

She kept looking around at the empty land, sky and road in front of her. There's an expression – if you look for trouble you shall find it. And find she did. She saw the storm clouds from Denver. "Holy…," she muttered gripping the wheel tighter.

Claire knew that a storm from a blown-up city can't be a good thing. She wasn't sure of the specifics and details, however she knew that Denver was probably a heavily radiated area now and that through that storm; the radiation may very well fall down on her. Her gaze shifted to the empty road in front of her.

She could turn her car around and get as far away from here as possible. That actually was quite sensible idea if not for the little fact that she didn't know what was _out_ _there_. She didn't know whether something like this hadn't happened elsewhere. Claire didn't fancy fleeing from one trouble only to run into a bigger one.

She took one more look at the coming storm clouds. Claire decided to go to town. Running off on her own when there was a chance that somebody would offer her a fine shelter in this upcoming trouble didn't seem such a good idea as moment before. Besides this very morning she saw that institutions were working in this town and if there was somebody to maintain order then there was somebody who would have a plan of what to do. There was somebody who would figure out how to save her skin.

'_This just keeps getting better and better,'_ she thought and turned the music louder. One more glance at the brewing storm and she pressed more on the gas.

Loud music didn't diminish growing fear in her chest. She really tried to stop wishing this wasn't happening as that wasn't helping. Her gaze involuntarily turned back again to the darkening sky and she found herself getting more and more nervous.

An hour later she found herself back at the Jericho. It should have been a bit more than an hour, but she had broken a lot of speed limits, not that there was anyone to notice that. Claire just figured the sooner she got back, the better.

She was driving down the main street when she saw busses and ambulances standing by the Town Hall. She pulled over and stepped out of the car to go and find out what was happening.

"We're packed!" was the first thing she heard among the buzz of the crowd.

'_That doesn't sound good,'_ she thought as she pressed forward to the center of the event – the front of the Town Hall. She needed to know what was happening. At the back of her mind, she thought that she really should have fled as far as she could when the thought first entered her mind.

"What?! I've got a bus load of people here that need shelter!" Jake said, not that stating the obvious helped much.

"You're really going to turn away all these people Eric? You're going to turn away your wife?!" April took on from the spot Jake left. She wanted, no, needed for Eric to solve this problem and so she got a little harsh with him.

Claire stepped into sight as April finished her guilt speech on her husband. Claire didn't think that placing guilt and making the man feel more miserable than he looked was going to be of any help, but it wasn't nor place nor time to point that out. She stood by the side of the bus and observed unfolding events. Claire still hoped that somebody will have a nice solution she could agree with, but the more time passed the more she thought that she'll have to watch out for herself by herself.

"We let everybody in, we'll all suffocate," Gray said. It was his answer to the crowd and April who was quick to judge her husband.

"Eric, there are really sick people here, and the storm is coming," April's loud voice took on a pleading note. She was a doctor, she knew her job, yet she had no idea what to do in a situation like this.

"Okay, we can take 10. And I've saved a spot for you," Eric said thinking that that was what his wife wanted to hear. He didn't understand that she had stressed her own presence among those without shelter to emphasize the importance of this. He thought she wanted to know that he would save her a safe and comfortable spot even if he would turn away everybody else.

April was honestly shocked. Did he really think that she worried about herself, that she was that selfish? She was a doctor, these people were her responsibility. She fretted for them. Would the misunderstandings between her and her husband ever end?

"What are you doing here?" while Eric and April made another knot in their knotted relationship, Jake noticed Claire leaning against the bus. Jake had enough problems with what was going on without Claire here to mess around.

Claire opened and closed her mouth; she really couldn't comprehend what to say to that. Was she forbidden to stand where she wished? She was no child to be ordered around. Honestly, that man's arrogance got bigger by the day. "I…,"

"Get back on the bus, the rain's coming!" Jake said motioning her away. He remembered her from the previous day and knew that she wasn't from this town. Actually, he felt responsible for her being in this town, because of that accident on the highway. Anyway, he thought that the safest thing for her would be to tag along with everybody else and that's what he told her to do. It looked to him that she needed somebody to tell her what to do.

"Alright, the ten most critical, fast," Jake said catching the end of the conversation between April and Eric. "Gray! The salt mine. How many people will it hold?" he turned to Gray Anderson.

As Jake and Gray proceeded to discuss how appropriate salt mine would be for a shelter, wheels were already turning in Claire's mind. Claire hated underground spaces. What's more she hated enclosed underground spaces. She might have settled for a modernized shelter and basement but the very thought of _mine_. _'Thousands of kilograms of rock and earth and mud with barely something to hold it,'_ the very thought made her uneasy.

Uneasy is not really the right word, the thought made her feel nauseated and frightened. She didn't fancy being enclosed in a mine. Enclosed in a small, unstable space with lots of people made her feel even worse. She had never thought of herself as a squeamish person or afraid of anything particular but the opportunity of getting closed in under earth… _'Like an early grave. Just a lot more than six feet under ground,'_ Somehow the possibility of dieing from radiation started to seem more attractive to her.

"Well, let's go!" Jake yelled.

While Claire had been internally shuddering at the thought of mines, the whole matter had been decided. Not that anybody would have listened to her if she had thought to speak – she was nothing to this town, just a pass-through. Besides, if she wanted to be honest with herself, the mines were the best option these people had. She just didn't think that that was the best option for her.

"Jake," Heather spoke. She placatingly placed her hand on his arm. "We're going to be okay. Okay?" she felt she needed to say something reassuring to him. To her he looked so dreadfully uptight and worried. As it wasn't his job to save them all and solve this problem she felt the least she could do was to offer a bit of comfort.

Claire saw this interaction and even forgot her fear of mines for awhile. The situation seemed comical, like from a soap opera, for Claire was most certain that they were not going to be okay. She was sure that they weren't going to be anywhere near okay for a long time to come. Yet she had the most profound wish that she could believe Heather's words and what's more – Claire prayed that Heather was right. World wasn't going to gain from Claire's pessimism.

Jake spared a glance sideways as he got on the bus and he saw Claire still standing there. "Go!" he urged.

She grimaced at being commanded. Honestly, she knew she was good-looking but she doubted that it was so easy to take fifteen years off of her to consider her a child. Claire turned and went to her car. She started the engine and turned to follow the busses. She tapped her fingers against the wheel and huffed impatiently.

The sun was still shining, the wind was blowing and all Claire could think about was that she really didn't want to go down into those mines. _'How many people have been buried under, huh? It always takes so little to have an accident! And these days, who could possibly come and help us get out? No professional help whatsoever, besides if I get lost, who would look for me? I am an outsider, nobody knows me. I'm on my own,'_

She was driving at the end of the car column so nobody really noticed when she turned back to highway instead of following the column on a mud road. She pressed gas harder to increase the distance between her and the auto column from Jericho to decrease time for changing her mind. She wasn't going to those heathen god-damned mines. She couldn't. She swallowed the bile that rose up in her throat. Claire took a quick look at the rear mirror; she couldn't see Jericho busses anymore. Just a cloud of slowly setting dust.

'_The bridge burned only way to go now – forward,'_ she thought not lessening the pressure on gas.

"This is either the most foolish thing I have ever done or the smartest and what is, actually, funny, if it is the first then I will die and won't really care and if it is the other then – _you go_, me," she muttered and popped a CD in the stereo. Claire turned the music on a pleasantly loud level and relaxed. What's done, done.

&

Emily. Good God, he hadn't seen her in what seemed like centuries. He hadn't seen or heard from her until yesterday for five years and now here he was. On the eve of radioactive rainfall he was driving like mad and praying he would make it in time. In time to … He didn't really know what. She was in danger and he knew he had to save her.

If Gray hadn't tossed him that gun… Jake had no plan whatsoever only this wish, need, actually – to save her. Yesterday he had been completely assured that she had nothing left for him and that the feeling was mutual but ever since he heard her pleading voice on the radio…

She was a memory. A good, bittersweet memory and a friend he hoped to regain. He knew she would never again be his lover or companion in life and that wasn't only because she, herself told that none too gently into his face five years ago. He knew he'd never dare to ruin the relationship she had with her fiancé. He could tell by her face that she was happy. How could he not? Years ago it had been his job, duty and hobby to guess her wishes by her features.

He pressed gas. It seemed he couldn't drive fast enough. Years ago he had placed her in danger; years ago he had ruined her life. He had resigned to letting her go, to leaving her alone, but she was in danger _now_. He couldn't ignore that. He couldn't just _let it be_. He _had_ to save her.

Jake didn't know why he had panicked when he heard her plea over radio. It was just this town, this place, this… Time. Everything was too much to bear, too much to remember. God, he didn't know what to do and from where to start. All he knew now was that he had to save Emily. _'For old time's sake,'_

Whoever was up there above the radioactive rain clouds must have been watching over him, because Jake didn't break his neck in his mad drive to Stanley's place. And he made it in time.

&

She had been driving for couple of hours. Rain clouds and Jericho a safe distance away or so she thought. The road was empty and easily foreseeable for what seemed to be a safe distance. She dared to pull over and take a breath. She had seen nobody on the road since she decided to abandon Jericho. It was like everyone had disappeared. Like the world and surrounding were keeping their breaths in anticipation of… Something.

Claire didn't like this. She didn't want to imagine why the roads were so empty. She didn't want to think about this, not that her wishes had any sway here. She fumbled for a minute in the glow box until she found what she looked for. She spread US road map over the wheel and traced her track since Jericho.

For a moment she debated with herself where she should go. She wanted to go to a big city. _'Away from that small wretched town,'_ as far away from the tragedy as she could possibly get. Her finger rested at Topeka. That looked like a big city. _'Probably center of the state or something of the kind,'_

Topeka was close to Kansas-City which was by the ocean. Ocean meant escape. She fancied getting on a ship and… Claire didn't want to go home. Not really. She hadn't been there for a while and didn't fancy returning, but who said she had to go to England? She could go to Spain, France – Europe in general. She could retour it.

Of course she hadn't seen the Grand Canyon yet or many of the other wonders US offered but at the moment she felt the need of safe distance between her and this country. She had been in distressing times in distressing places and she wasn't fond of being in that kind of situation again.

She sat there for a minute thinking what course of action she should take. What would offer her safest and most comfortable route to wherever she decided to go along the way? "Topeka it is," she muttered and put the map away. She had long road in front of her and she didn't want to make any stops unless absolutely unnecessary.


End file.
